It’s the old 80/20 rule come to life once again. I’ve been in communications for the past two decades (scary to think!) and in my opinion, 80% of the change in our business has come in the last 20% of that time.

In just the past 3-4 years, the communications function is SO different.  There are some obvious on-the-surface reasons why this is the case (the ever-more “socially-mediated” information environment, the rise of mobile communication, our daily/hourly/minutely dependence on the internet).

But there are also some below-the-surface sociological/psychological reasons as well (increasing scientific evidence that people are learning, thinking, and making decisions differently than just a few years ago).

Which is why it’s both rewarding–and essential–that CEC (Communications Executive Council) is also very different than it was just a few years ago. Read More »

We have just released our annual 2011 Aggregate Benchmarking Report highlighting the key communications budget trends for 2011/2012. In my previous blog, I highlighted the growing importance of staff in communications budgets; but there is another interesting trend that we found from our data: Companies are decoupling their communications and marketing departments’ budgets.

While in 2007, 33 percent of communicators reported that their communications department’s budget was part of the marketing budget, this percentage fell to 21 in 2011. In addition, the share of marketing related expenses in communicators’ non-staff budgets also fell by 10 percent between 2007 and 2011. Read More »

You may have seen us write about crisis communications lately and the importance of building a preventative culture  – that is, being prepared to respond to a crisis situation without harming company reputation and thus avoid the risk of becoming another NewsCorp. One important (although seemingly small) step of being well-prepared is knowing how to communicate well during breaking news that affects your company and subsequent handling of enquiries from the media. This post brings to you some key steps to think about when creating news/press releases and more generally handling questions from the media.

Many communicators’ tendency will be to immediately think about the channels through which to release the news, but there are some pre-steps to consider before distributing the information.

Firstly, before even thinking through how to write the release, decide if the event is worthy of a news release or if you should communicate about it in some other way. Consider these questions:

• Would my company’s brand/reputation suffer if I don’t put out a news release?
• Would there be legal implications? (i.e. might we be accused of a cover up if there is no official statement?)
• Can we stay ahead of the story and limit damage by being proactive in offering information?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, it is best to issue a formal news release.

Secondly, once you have determined that issuing a release is the way to go (and odds are in most cases, the answer will be yes), think through what it should contain. Aside from the more obvious tips of having a catchy title or avoiding typos and grammar mistakes, there are three key steps you always need to consider and think through before you even begin to write your news release: context, format, and content.

Read More »

Change is the new normal

With the average employee experiencing 3-4 different types of organizational change over the last two years, CEC is updating our work on how leading organizations manage these events. Coming soon are toolkits to help you with the communications challenges surrounding specific change events ranging from M&A to changes in organizational strategy.

Communications challenges

We’ve observed two different types of challenge facing communicators during change:

Read More »

By Kirsten Robinson

Are you, as a communicator, living in the past?

If your team still works in the traditional role of communication “creators and influencers”—driving stakeholder understanding and acceptance of the company—then you’re falling behind.

The best Communications teams are shifting to communication “enablers.” This shift requires Communications teams to refresh their thinking about their function—including the way they resource.

Old school, traditional resourcing has three limitations: A focus on service requests, limited integration within the function, and limited collaboration with other functions. The new school of resourcing as communication enablers focuses on strategic partnerships, integrates comms teams, and collaborates among functions.

Your Communications team can reinvigorate resourcing efforts by following these 4 steps:

1. Define Communications’ mission and remit. A clear Communications mission can help focus energy on the highest-value activities and define clear service boundaries.  USAA’s Employee Communications team rewrote its mission to state their focus on enabling employee dialogue.

2. Capitalize on emerging business opportunities. Leading Communications teams proactively enable communication around emerging business needs. For example, you could think about your teams’ core capabilities and brainstorm new services, outcomes, or interventions to apply those unique skills. Nokia did just that to realize that their team could extend its strong dialogue capabilities through training line managers to do the same.

3. Improve integration with line partners. Communications can support cross-functional learning in the use of social media channels. For example, PR and Marketing are separate functions that can work together on social media-led campaigns. For example, Ford Motor Company integrated PR and Marketing, resulting in a 40% increase in the Communications budget.

4. Boost efficiency across the portfolio. Communications can maximize its resources by identifying and removing costly inefficiencies within individual activity areas. ING has implemented a service-level tiering system to prioritize Comms support to the most valued activities.

CEC Related Resources:

Equipping Communications for the Future: Resourcing

Organizational Structure

Integrating PR and Marketing for Better Business Results

I hope it’s not obvious from the way I talk or act—but I grew up as a big NASCAR fan. That’s right, stock car racing. The high banks of Daytona, King Richard, The Great American Race—all threads in the fabric of my youth.  Please humor me and tell me it’s not obvious.

I do come by it honestly, though—my Dad spent his youth hanging around the local race tracks of Long Island as a driver/mechanic (one small offshoot of NASCAR’s roots extends from the Carolinas all the way up to suburban New York City…you don’t need to be a Southerner to be a redneck.)

This genetic anomaly may be somewhat embarrassing to admit to, but it does have at least some value, since there are lessons from NASCAR racing that have great applicability for us in corporate comms.

Lesson number one:  Never admit to being a NASCAR fan. (oops…too late)

But a more important lesson is the one they teach to rookie drivers about how to avoid The Big One. That’s the name given to the kind of catastrophic chain reaction wrecks that occur about every other time they race at the superspeedways like Daytona and Talledega.

SITUATION: You’re driving down the straightaway of a 2-and-a-half-mile track going 200 miles an hour, and you see a wreck developing a couple hundred yards ahead of you. What are you supposed to do?

Smacking on the brakes isn’t gonna save you—you’re going way too fast for that. And there’s no way to tell which direction the careening cars will go next.  Some wrecks push up the banking toward the outside wall.  Some collect down low toward the infield.  They’re all different. You’ve got about one second to determine whether you will narrowly avoid certain doom, or, become yet another victim of The Big One.  Soooooooo again, what are you supposed to do?

Here’s what:  Aim for the center of the wreck.

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